Photocatalytic removal of organophosphorus pesticide by the WO3-Fe3O4/rGO photocatalyst under visible light.

The WO3-Fe3O4/reduced graphene oxide (rGO) composite was synthesized with a hydrothermal method for the photocatalytic removal of diazinon (DZ) in visible light. The influence of catalyst concentration (0.5-1.5 g L-1), pH (5-9), and initial pollutant value (5-15 mg L-1) on the pesticide degradation was studied. The performance of the WO3-Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite for DZ degradation under visible light shows 94% degradation of 5 mg L-1 DZ for 100 min with 1 g L-1 nanocomposite, and the degradation kinetic was modeled in pseudo-first order (PFO) and the maximum kobs was 0.0248 min-1. The photocatalytic mechanism and the intermediates of DZ degradation were identified. In addition, the WO3-Fe3O4/rGO catalyst showed reusability after 4 runs. The results of this work illustrate that the WO3-Fe3O4/rGO nanocomposite can be applied for real use owing to its high catalytic performance.

Antidiabetic Potential of Prosopis farcta Roots: In Vitro Pancreatic Beta Cell Protection, Enhancement of Glucose Consumption, and Bioassay-Guided Fractionation.

By using the streptozotocin- (STZ-) induced cytotoxicity in ß-TC3 cells as an assay model, a bioassay-guided fractionation study was employed to isolate and characterize the potential antidiabetic principles of roots of Prosopis farcta. A combination of open column chromatography on reverse-phase silica gel using a water-ethanol gradient (10 : 90 to 100 : 0) followed by HPLC-based fractionation led to an active compound that appears to be composed of carbohydrate/sugar. When cell viability under STZ was reduced to 49.8 ± 4% (mean ± SD), treatment with the active compound at the concentration of 0.5 mg/mL either as a coadministration or a pretreatment improved the viability to 93 ± 1.9% and 91.5 ± 7%, respectively. The reduction in the mitochondrial membrane potential by STZ (47.34 ± 8.9% of control) was similarly recovered to 84.5 ± 4.3 (coadministration) and 88 ± 5.5% (pretreatment) by the active fraction. The bioassay-guided fractionation, ß-cell protective effect, and increased glucose consumption (up to 1.49-fold increase) in hepatocytes by the extracts and active fraction are also discussed.

Discovery of Novel Glucagon Receptor Antagonists Using Combined Pharmacophore Modeling and Docking.

Glucagon and the glucagon receptor are most important molecules control over blood glucose concentrations. These two molecules are very important to studies of type 2 diabetic patients. In literature, several classes of small molecule antagonists of the human glucagon receptor have been reported. Glucagon receptor antagonist could decrease hepatic glucose output and improve glucose control in diabetic patients. In this research, to identify novel and diverse leads for use in potent glucagon receptor antagonist design, a ligand-based pharmacophore modeling, was developed using the best conformations of training set compounds. The best five features pharmacophore model, called Hypo1, includes, hydrogen bond acceptors, two hydrophobic, and positive ionizable features, which has the highest correlation coefficient (0.805), cost difference (64.38), low RMS (2.148), as well as it shows a high goodness of fit and enrichment factor. The generated pharmacophore model has been validated by using a series of similar structures with varying affinities for the glucagon receptor. Then, the developed model has been applied as a search query in different database searching with the main objective of finding novel molecules which have the potential to be be modified into novel lead compounds. As a result, some hit molecules were introduced as final candidates by employing virtual screening and molecular docking procedure simultaneously. The results from pharmacophore modeling and molecular docking are complementary to each other and could serve as a useful way for the discovery of potent small molecules as glucagon receptor antagonist.

TRPA1 Modulating C14 Polyacetylenes from the Iranian Endemic Plant Echinophora platyloba.

Phytochemical investigation of the apolar extract obtained from aerial parts of the Iranian endemic plant Echinophora platyloba DC (Apiaceae) resulted in the characterization of the polyacetylene fraction of this plant. This resulted to be composed of the known echinophorins A and B, embedding the very rare α-pyrone terminal, and of the new echinophorin D (3), including also three conjugated triple bonds. The chemical structures of these compounds were secured by detailed inspection of MS and 1D/2D NMR spectra. The isolated polyacteylenes were evaluated for their modulation of six thermo-TRP channels and they revealed a selective activity on TRPA1, an ion channel involved in the mediation of neuropathic and inflammatory pain. This is the first report on the activity of plant polyacetylenes on transient receptor potential (TRP) channels.

Potential Anticancer Properties of Osthol: A Comprehensive Mechanistic Review.

Cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell proliferation which has the potential to occur in different tissues and spread into surrounding and distant tissues. Despite the current advances in the field of anticancer agents, rapidly developing resistance against different chemotherapeutic drugs and significantly higher off-target effects cause millions of deaths every year. Osthol is a natural coumarin isolated from Apiaceaous plants which has demonstrated several pharmacological effects, such as antineoplastic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. We have attempted to summarize up-to-date information related to pharmacological effects and molecular mechanisms of osthol as a lead compound in managing malignancies. Electronic databases, including PubMed, Cochrane library, ScienceDirect and Scopus were searched for in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies on anticancer effects of osthol. Osthol exerts remarkable anticancer properties by suppressing cancer cell growth and induction of apoptosis. Osthol's protective and therapeutic effects have been observed in different cancers, including ovarian, cervical, colon and prostate cancers as well as chronic myeloid leukemia, lung adenocarcinoma, glioma, hepatocellular, glioblastoma, renal and invasive mammary carcinoma. A large body of evidence demonstrates that osthol regulates apoptosis, proliferation and invasion in different types of malignant cells which are mediated by multiple signal transduction cascades. In this review, we set spotlights on various pathways which are targeted by osthol in different cancers to inhibit cancer development and progression.

Experimental and computational studies on the binding of diazinon to human serum albumin.

In the present research, the binding properties of diazinon (DZN), as an organophosphorus herbicide, to human serum albumin (HSA) were investigated using combination of spectroscopic, electrochemistry, and molecular modeling techniques. Changes in the UV-Vis and FT-IR spectra were observed upon ligand binding along with a significant degree of tryptophan fluorescence quenching on complex formation. The obtained results from spectroscopic and electrochemistry experiments along with the computational studies suggest that DZN binds to residues located in subdomains IIA of HSA with binding constant about 1410.9 M-1 at 300 K. From the thermodynamic parameters calculated according to the van't Hoff equation, the enthalpy change ΔH° and entropy change ΔS° were found to be -16.695 and 0.116 KJ/mol K, respectively. The primary binding pattern is determined by hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen binding occurring in so-called site I of HSA. DZN could slightly alter the secondary structure of HSA. All of experimental results are supported by computational techniques such as docking and molecular dynamics simulation using a HSA crystal model.

Ethanolic Extract of Berberis Vulgaris Fruits Inhibits the Proliferation of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell Line Through Induction of Apoptosis

BACKGROUND: As it is obvious, there is much documentation that shows the importance of breast cancer treatment in patients. High expressions of P53 and Bcl-2 are associated with breast cancer, which are reliable factors to follow up the breast cancer. Berberis vulgaris is used as a traditional medicine in cancer. Despite of the fact that many researches have demonstrated its anti-cancer properties, there are no scientific documents to show its efficacy in detail in breast cancer. OBJECTIVE: Because of traditional use of B. vulgaris and little knowledge about its effects, our research was focused on determining the efficacy and toxicity of B. vulgaris. For this reason, we determined the efficacy of B. vulgaris on breast cancer cells. METHOD: As described in Method section, standard protocols including MTT assay and qPCR were performed to identify the effect of B. vulgaris ethanolic extract against breast cancer cells. RESULTS: Our results clearly demonstrated that 35 mg/ml had IC50 against 3t3 normal cells, and 9 mg/ml of B. vulgaris was effective against MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The results demonstrated that even at only 1 mg/ml concentration of B. vulgaris, crude extract was effective, 9 mg/ml and 12 mg/ml of extract had better anti-cancer activity compared with doxorubicin. CONCLUSION: Despite that the role of anticancer properties of B. vulgaris was clearly defined in some patents, our results demonstrated the potency of B. vulgaris against breast cancer, but further analysis should be performed to candidate this herb as an anti-breast cancer drug.

Synthesis of Fe-Cu/TiO2 nanostructure and its use in construction of a sensitive and selective sensor for metformin determination.

A carbon paste electrode modified with Fe-Cu/TiO2 was prepared and used for low level determination of metformin (MET) using square wave adsorptive stripping voltammetry (SWAdSV). The Fe-Cu/TiO2 nanoparticle was synthesized by a modified sol-gel method. The surface structure and composition of nanoparticles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction analysis (XRD) and N2 physisorption. Also, electrochemical properties of the prepared nanocomposite modified electrode were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Under optimized conditions, the modified electrode exhibited a linear response over the concentration range of 15 nM to 75 µM MET, with a detection limit of 3 nM. The proposed sensor exhibited a high sensitivity, good selectivity and was successfully applied for MET determination in real samples such as human urine and pharmaceutical formulations.